What is Digital Garment Direct Printing? (or known as YG DTG printer,apparel
printing, direct to substrate printing, digital
direct to garment printing or digital inkjet printing to
garments(T-shirt) directly)
The Decorated Apparel Industry was taken by storm in late
2004 when some of the first commercial based
direct-to-garment printers were released. Before you can
truly understand why Digital inkjet garment printing has
become so popular, you will need to understand some
background history.
For years, if you wanted to print a couple
of cotton shirts you would use either digital transfer paper
or try to screen print the order. Both of these decorating
methods have their positives, but they also come with
negatives. Digital transfers allow you to create as little
as a one-off shirt via a standard desktop inkjet or laser
printer. The cost to make a single transfer can range from
$0.50 to $2.50 depending on what ink and paper is used by
your printer. However, the transfer paper is covered with a
polymer (AKA adhesive) that glues the ink to the top of the
shirt. The polymer typically will leave a hand where it is
applied and can discolor the shirt or create a window around
your graphic. New transfer papers have been released that
either minimize the window or uses a 2-step process to
eliminate the window completely.
Screen printing has traditionally been the
decorating method of choice for most of the apparel that you
see in retail stores. With screen printing, ink is only
dropped down on garment where the design is, thus
eliminating the undesirable window that can occur with some
digital transfer paper. However, a graphic must be separated
(the process that breaks the down graphic into the different
colors needed to print it), a screen must be burned for each
color and it requires a screen printing press to be setup.
This can become a very time consuming and expensive process
when you only need a few shirts. Commonly referred to as a
short run, which can be as low as 1 shirt to as many as 48
depending on the size of the shop, the cost per a screen
printed shirt could easily be more than what your customer
is willing to pay for.
With the changes in fashion leaning more toward short-run,
limited edition personalized garments, the need for a high
quality solution grew. Of course, apparel decorators are
never satisfied with the concept that things are never going
to get any better.
Manufacturers and distributors continued to push the
boundaries by finding cheaper and faster ways to screen
print or to creating better inkjet transfers papers with
less hand or feel to them. But the introduction of Digital
inkjet garment printing allowed us to take the positive
aspects of both inkjet transfers and screen printing in a
solution that could be done in a compact space.
The concept of YETEK digital garment printing is basically
using a digital printer to lay down a textile water-based
ink that has chemical binders that allow the ink to remain
on the garment without a polymer being applied to the top of
the shirt like a transfer. The ink is then cured to the
garment using either a heat press or a textile conveyor
dryer.
On average, an apparel decorator can take the artwork from a
customer, put it on to a garment and get paid by the
customer in less than 10 minutes. With some modification to
the artwork, the decorator can personalize the next garment
with a name, number(s) or different colors and produce
another custom garment in minutes. That is the beauty of
YETEK digital garment printing – short run, personalized
garments in the matter of minutes.
Which type of method should you use for imprinted apparel?
When looking at garment decoration printing options, many
times the decision comes down to a choice between four main
options—each with its own strengths and weaknesses. For
printing directly onto the garment your choices are direct
to garment digital printing (DGP) and traditional
screen-printing. The other methods would be sublimation or
thermal transfers. As stated above, each of these processes
has its own pros and cons. You should make your decision
based on the factors that are most important to your
business application.
Thermal Transfer Printing
Thermal transfer printing involves the smallest initial
investment, you simply need a conventional inkjet or color
laser printer with the proper transfer paper and a heat
press and you are ready to go. The most common complaints
about thermal transfers are cost per print, inconsistent
wash results, peeling and/or cracking of the transfer,
outline of transfer paper visible on the garment and
unnatural feel of shirt where the transfer was placed (heavy
hand).
The issue of the outline of the transfer paper can be
addressed by trimming the transfer prior to pressing, which
can greatly add to the production time. The typical inkjet
printer using off the shelf inks and moderately priced
transfer paper will print a letter sized transfer (8½" x
11") for about $1.50 - $2.00. The process is simple to learn
and friendly to most cotton and cotton blend garments but,
it is also a process that any consumer can reproduce at home
with their own desktop printer and a "t-shirt printing kit"
from their local office supply store making it somewhat
difficult to sell. As inkjet and laser printer inks are
translucent, thermal transfer printing is a white or light
garment decoration option only.
Sublimation Transfer Printing
Sublimation transfers differ from thermal transfers in that
they are a dye that actually transfers from the carrier
paper to the garment. When heated, sublimation pigments pass
from a solid state to a gas state (never becoming liquid)
and imbed themselves in the fibers of the garment.
Sublimation produces a print that has virtually no feel
(little or no hand) on the garment. Sublimation is more
expensive to get into than thermal transfer printing, as you
need a dedicated inkjet or color laser printer as well as
specialty sublimation inks and a heat press. A full set of
sublimation inks can run into the $300-400 range for the
typical inkjet printer toners for color lasers are sometimes
$500-600.
Unlike thermal transfers, screen-printing and direct to
garment printing sublimation needs a synthetic substrate to
effectively transfer to simply put it is not cotton
friendly. Sublimation is definitely the process of choice
for decorating non-textiles such as mugs, plates, brass and
aluminum.
Certain manufacturers now make sublimation ready garments
that are cotton with polyester "front". These shirts do
address the issue of needing a polyester shirt (most people
don't like the feel of a 100% poly shirt against their skin)
but it comes at a price. A traditional 6-ounce white cotton
t-shirt costs a little more than $1 while a similar
sublimation ready shirt will cost from $5.50 - $7.00 just
for the blank. Add to the cost of the garment another $1.00
- $2.00 for the transfer (8 1/2" x 11") and a single
sublimation t-shirt can cost as much as $9.00 to produce.
Sublimation does produce very vibrant prints when printed on
the correct type garment and their wash fastness is
excellent, however, they do tend to fade with exposure to
sunlight, so they are not the best solution for garments
that will be worn extensively outdoors.
Most manufacturers of sublimation inks/toners offer
specialty software for printing sublimation transfers that
contain profiles for better color matching while these
packages a nice, they also add additional cost and learning
curve to the process of producing good output. Because of
its' nature, polyester is a white, or light color garment
decoration process only.
Screen-Printing
When most of us think of decorated t-shirts we think of
traditional screen-printed shirts. The process of
screen-printing is the oldest and most proven of the four
common methods of garment imprinting, it is also the most
labor intensive. Screen-printing lends itself well to large
run orders as well as to simple logo work. The more colors
and the smaller the order the less that traditional
screen-printing makes sense. Unlike the other three
processes discussed here, with screen-printing once the
artwork is done on the computer: the work really begins.
A typical 4 color screen-print job can take 2 hours from the
time the artwork is done on the computer until the first
garment is printed. Once the job is set up, though, shirts
can be produced a very high rate. Orders of 12-24 shirts are
definitely not practical with a screen-printing set up and
many screen-printers won’t take an order for less than 72
garments.
Once everything is setup a traditionally screen-printed
garment may only have 5-10 cents worth of ink on it,
however, the typical screen-print job costs $10-15 per color
to set up. Because screen-print inks can be opaque,
screen-printing lends itself to white, light and dark
garments (though printing on darks does require a bit more
skill than lights and whites).
Other issues of concern with screen-printing are workspace
and disposal of waste products as well as a moderate
learning curve. Overall, if high volume production is your
main objective, screen-printing is a good route to explore.
Learn more about SWF East's screen-printing solutions.
Direct to Garment(DTG) Printers
The newest and most exciting way to imprint garments is
Direct to Garment Digital printing or DTG
. YETEK Digital
garment printing involves the use of a highly modified
inkjet printer with specially formulated garment inks which
are heat set with a heat press or tunnel dryer. Unlike
screen-printing, DGP output does not require separations,
films and screens. Once your artwork is ready on the
computer it is output directly onto the garment.
Because of the lack of steps required for DTG
, short run
orders can be quickly and economically produced in a
seemingly infinite number of colors. The cost of output onto
a white or light colored garment is typically under 20 cents
for an 8½ x 11 image and output onto a dark garment for the
same size image is generally around $2.00. Production times
on a YETEK digital garment print are similar to those for a
sublimation or thermal transfer, and generally a bit slower
than those for traditional screen-printing (once the press
is set up and printing). With YETEK digital garment printing
there is virtually no hand on light and white garments and
minimal feel on dark garments.
A typical 6-8’ table provides sufficient room for YETEK
digital garment printer and a heat press completes the
package. YETK digital garment printing does not compete with
simple one and two color screen print jobs when quantities
exceed 3 or 4 dozen, but, it does fit in nicely for larger
runs of more complex artwork (full color graphics).
The biggest challenge most new YETEK digital garment
printers face is marketing their product. As the process is
only a few years old, many end consumers are not familiar
with the process, however, once they realize that they can
design their garments from a full colored palette (as
opposed to a limited palette offered by most
screen-printers) they will quickly transition to DGP output
for a lot of their imprinted apparel needs.
With the advent of white ink and RIP S/W for YETEK printers
a whole new marketplace for short run and custom dark shirts
has developed that is virtually impossible to address with
any other form of garment imprinting methods. Digital Direct
to Garment printing is the wave of the future for garment
imprinting.
Learn more about printing with white ink on a digital inkjet
garment printer >>
Digital Garment Printers are also referred to as: Garment
Printers, Textile Printers, Digital Apparel Printer, Inkjet
Garment printers, Direct To Garment Printers, Direct
to Substrate printers, YETEK Direct on Garment Printers,
Direct Garment Printers, Apparel Printers, Tshirt Printing
Machines, T-shirt printers, Direct To Cotton Printers,
T-shirt Printers, Fabrics printers.
|